Ron Barber backs Cornyn-Cuellar plan

Arizona Democrat Rep. Ron Barber said Wednesday that he plans to back legislation proposed by fellow border-state lawmakers to end the current immigration crisis.

“Washington has, for too long, ignored the problem of illegal immigration and drug trafficking across the border,” Barber said on “Fox & Friends.” “But now we need to solve the problem, and that’s what I’m trying to do by signing on to a bill that was introduced by my colleague from Texas, Congressman Cuellar.”

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On Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) announced that they are working on passing legislation in reaction to the influx of undocumented children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months. The bipartisan, bicameral HUMANE Act is set to be unveiled on Tuesday and would attempt to modify the 2008 William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to make it so that undocumented children from Central America would be treated “exactly the same” as those that come from Mexico. The lawmakers said Tuesday that they hope to pass the legislation before August recess.

Barber explained that his current frustrations stem from his ideas that the United States should have been better prepared for the influx and that the federal government has not given notification to local authorities on where immigrants are being housed. Barber’s district covers 83 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Fox & Friends” host Elisabeth Hasselbeck pressed Barber on comments from Harry Reid, who said that the border is secure, asking if he thought the senator was “delusional.”

“I wouldn’t want to characterize the majority leader in any way like that, but I will say this: that the people I represent in southern Arizona … don’t feel secure, don’t feel safe in their homes,” Barber explained. “And until that’s done, the border isn’t secure from my perspective.”